Lancers of War
by Lockius
Summary: Daniel Carmine, second oldest of the 4 brothers Carmine has been drafted to squad Omega-One, but little does he know about what's going to be waiting for him down in the Locust Hollows. Contains your usual GOW swearing, rated T. Theme: Gears of War 2 main theme (Rock Version by Bader Nana)
1. Assault on Landown

Omega-One  
-Sgt. Rex Blackburn  
-Cpl. Ashley Kensington  
-Pvt. James Maddox  
-Pvt. Daniel Carmine

Daniel Carmines P.O.V  
Act 1: In the Beginning…  
Chapter 1: Assault on Landown

I step out slowly onto the busy road, securing my helmet and summertime armour. After being drafted to another squad, I begin to miss the old jokes and taunts we'd make at the oncoming locust hoards back in the day.  
But, new squad, new faces, time to start fresh.  
I quickly notice the 3 COG soldiers standing, facing me. I begin to walk over to them, as my boots hit the cracked pavement that once was.

"And you must be Daniel" The Sargent chuffs, looking up and down at me, examining me as if I were some sort of divine creature.

"I'm Sargent Rex Blackburn, welcome to Omega-One."

I nod, noticing the 2 other COG Gears, he notices me and begins to introduce my new squad mates. He walks over to a small but stocky man, with thick brown hair tied into a ponytail, he has engineer goggles strapped to his forehead, and his green eyes seem to stare at me.

"This here is Private James Maddox, the handy man of sorts, if there's a puzzle to be worked at or a button to be pushed, he's your man." He starts, patting James on the back.

"Nice to see a capable soldier from the Carmine Family stepping into our squad, good to have you here man." James greets, after we shake hands.

Rex then steps to his right to a woman with long blonde hair, dark blue eyes and a short thin nose, a scar streams across her left cheek.

"And this is…" Rex continues, before being cut off by her.

"Carmine knows who I am!" She laughs. It's Ashley, a member from my old squad, and my best friend.

I pull my Lancer from behind me, and clash it with hers, another way of demonstrating a high five.

"Good to see you again, Ash." I say, pulling my Lancer back and holding it in my left hand.

"You too Dan, let's hope we stick together this time huh?" She questions, with a smile on her face.

I nod and look back at Rex, who has a confused look on his face, his black moustache twitching slightly.

"Well, glad to see you two know each other." He mumbles.

We wait for our rig to arrive, I showed up quite early to meet my new squad. I wasn't there for the big speech, but had heard it over the transmission; seems to me that Operation: Hollow Storm is going to be one of the biggest COG plans going around, and he's really eager to win this war, as is everyone else of the remaining human race. After a few moments of standing around, Rex calls me over to a pile of crates. I walk slowly towards him, he stands before me with his arms crossed.

"Listen, Carmine. You're filling the shoes of a man we'd rather leave alone. Private Bishop was a good man." He then pauses, stepping closer to me with a slight frown on his face.

"You better be as good as they say you are, boy." He whispers, trying to intimidate me.

I stay silent, continuing to keep my eyes trained on him. Rex turns around towards the crates, opening one and pulling out a Longshot, he hands it to me. I put the rifle into my right back holster, keeping the Lancer in my hand.

"Control's told me all about your Marksman skills, best you put them to use against these Locust freaks."

Just as he finishes, the Rig arrives, driven by a COG Gear. He then jumps out of the driver's seat and jogs towards Rex.

"She's all yours, sir. Different from the normal Rigs, this one has a Rocket Troika instead of your regular one." He says before jogging off towards the buildings behind me.

"Good… Good." Rex grunts to himself.

"Right Omega-One, everyone aboard the Rig!"

Rex and Ash step onto the Rig, whilst James climbs into the driver's seat, restarting the engines. Before I climb on, I notice the Rigs pin up logo. A lady, wearing a black dress with her hands behind her head, under it reads '202'. I then smile and board the Rig.

"Okay! Ashley, take cover by the front of the Rig. Carmine, you're at the Turret, double time Squad!" Rex orders us, drawing his lancer into both hands and signalling James to start the Rig.

"Landown here we come." Ash whispers.

[Music: 'Take it back!' (Fallout 3 soundtrack)]

The engines start, the Rig then pressing forward onto the path to Landown. The tires begin to hit the dirt path and the ruins of old buildings begin to fade as we head into a forest area.

"We should be meeting with Rig 314 and Rig D11 shortly, they've already begun heading towards Landown!" James yells over the roaring Engine.

We begin to load our weapons and prepare for what might lie ahead. After a few minutes of catching up, we reach the other rigs, with Delta-One in front of us.

"Welcome to the party Omega-One." We hear Dom say over the radio.

"Glad to be here Delta, we wouldn't miss this one for the world." James jokes back, laughing to himself.

I load the turret with rockets and cock it into position, I smirk under my helmet, and I can't wait to try this out. As we get closer to our destination, we begin to hear reports of attacks over the radio. Rigs are being reported down, and ravens are being destroyed.

Suddenly, the fight begins on our side.

"Mow the suckers down!" Rex yells, beginning to fire his Lancer.

I begin to use the Rocket Turret to fire on the incoming Locust, it seems like entire forces are out too stop us. Rockets start streaming from the turret, as fast as a regular sized gun bullet, killing grubs below us. Waves and Waves of more Locusts begin to appear from grub holes in the ground, they begin firing at the Rig.

"Damn it, looks like they've found out we have rockets!" Ash shouts.

"Keep firing Carmine!" Rex yells toward me.

I load more rockets into the troika and cock it into position once more, the ongoing slaughter of Locusts continues. More grub holes emerge and suddenly get brought down again by the 3 rigs.

"Nice work on those rockets Dan, damn!" Ash laughs, continuing to shoot at the horde.

Suddenly, from behind the 2 other Rigs, I notice something in the distance.

I gasp in horror.

"Watch out, a fucking Brumak!" James yells as I begin to fire at it.

The Brumak than fires at us, a rocket propels towards the Troika. I quickly turn around and jump from the platform as the rocket troika behind me explodes in a cloud of fire. I land on my hands and feet, recovering quickly and unhooking my Longshot from my back.

"Close one." Ash says to me, with a serious look on her face.

"I don't plan on dying anytime soon Ash, don't you worry." I say back to her.

Delta-One brings the huge beast down. As I see Marcus fire the turret at the Brumak, I notice a COG Gear, jamming his gun a lot as he fires. He looks back and sees me. I slowly wave at him. He notices this, waving back. He then gets hit with a Hammerburst round and gets back into cover.

"Eyes on the grubs rook!" Marcus scolds him.

'Ben…' I think to myself. He's too young to be involved with the likes of Delta-One.

Nonetheless, I begin to snipe the Locusts below. I am excellent with a Longshot, as my old Squad Sargent used to tell me. 'You can hit anything within a 100 mile radius Carmine.' Throughout my years as a Gear, I have always been the sniper of the team. From the start of Training with my Brother Clay and Ashley, to my days in Bravo-Two, I have been an outstanding marksman, and every one of my sergeants has told me that.

…Everyone except Rex, apparently.

"Keep your aim straight Carmine, we won't make it through if you don't help shoot these grubs into submission!" Rex insults me, I ignore him.

Rex then turns away from the battle, with a finger on his earpiece, the communications then transmits to all of our radio pieces as well.

"Omega-One, there's a problem." Control states.

"What is it now, Control!? We're a bit busy rolling into Landown!" Rex screams at them.

"A 7 man Rig Squad has gone missing in the hills, and we need a team to go and find them."

Rex then shakes his head in disgust.

"Men die! We need to focus on the mission, not a squad of gears!"

Ashley then puts her hand on her earpiece.

"Belay that, we'll head to the hills."

"Thanks Ash, Control out." Control says before shutting off.

"What are you doing Lieutenant? I'm your superior officer here!" Rex shoves her with his right hand, she steps back.

"The right thing Rex, we won't win this war if we lose our human spirit first." Ash states sternly.

Rex grunts in anger.

"Fine… James, change of course. We're headed for the hills." Rex orders James.

James looks up at him as he changes course towards a dirt road, "Sure thing, Boss."

The number of Locusts thins out rapidly, until none of them are seen. If a squad disappeared up here, what happened to them? The hill is dark and silent; fog rises as we get higher up. Maybe the Locust left as soon as they took out this squad? Or maybe they captured them? The possibilities are near limitless, and I don't want to find out anytime soon.

"What do you think we'll find, Dan?" Ash asks me, a tone of worry in her light voice.

"Nothing good…" I mumble as a shrug my shoulders.

I turn towards her, crossing my arms.

"You did the right thing, convincing Rex."

She looks at me, sighing.

"Yeah, I know… Let's hope we find something." She says.

Ash looks back over towards the road, as do I. The silence begins to worry me, how could they have suddenly vanished if there was nothing up here? This isn't right. A sudden rumble in the ground shakes the rig, and the squad.

"Uh, please tell me that was someone's stomach…" James questions quietly.

The rumbling gets louder and rougher, like a large earthquake, it sends us to the ground.

Suddenly, a large Corpser emerges from the ground, roaring at us with a deep, shrieking cry for vengeance.

Rex points at the large creature, scared but trying not to show it. He looks back at us with a frown on his face. "God damn it, everybody get down!"

The Corpser then digs its claws into the Rig, bringing us underground into its clutches.

The Rig engine blows up as the Corpsers' claw charges through it, and we begin to fall into the Locust Hollow.


	2. Into the Hive

Omega-One  
-Sgt. Rex Blackburn  
-Cpl. Ashley Kensington  
-Pvt. James Maddox  
-Pvt. Daniel Carmine

Daniel Carmines P.O.V  
Act 1: In the Beginning…  
Chapter 2: Into the Hive

We fall into what looks like a Locust Stronghold, a large cliff lay in the middle of a sea of bright Imulsion. Below the cliff lies a path that leads upwards, the Cliff has a path that eventually meets with it. The whole squad is hanging onto bits of the barricades from the ruined Rig as it continues to drop. I lose my grip from the loose parts, drifting away from the rest of the squad, as does Ashley. Time seems to slow as I fall close to the cliff; I reach my hands out for it and grab hold of the cliffs edge with one hand.

"No! Dan!" Ash shrieks as she falls, I turn my head and reach my other hand out swiftly.

She grabs it in an instant and dangles down below me, we sit silent for a couple of moments staring at each other, astonished. I lift her up to the cliff where she pulls herself up, she then helps me up as well.

"Well… That was pretty fucking close." I say shrugging off dust as I stand up.

Ash coughs, smiling for a brief moment. "Yeah, thanks for the save."

I have my head towards her, then turning back and facing the sudden rock and Imulsion environment I'm not entirely used to. I notice an Imulsion River runs behind us, where the path is leading. It must lead to the Locust, or some sort of hideout of theirs.

Ash puts her hand on her ear piece.

"Rex, are you there?" She asks over the radio.

After a brief few seconds of worry, he responds.

"Copy that, Corporal. Me and James are below you, we're about to make our way along the path."

James then coughs over the radio. "Yep, just give us a moment. Y'know, we're sort of lodged in with a bunch of old Rig parts."

Ash nods. "Copy that."

"Oh, and Carmine, I saw that stint of yours on the cliff. Not bad." Rex then says, before quieting down.

I turn back to Ashley, with my hands behind me head.

"I think I did better than a not bad, hey Ash?" I joke.

She laughs, before we start the follow the path that connects with the lower passage way.

We walk along the rocky surface, still holding our Lancers. It was a wonder how we survived that fall; I question it to myself but don't come up with a straight answer. It was just luck that was on our side for once. I'm continually told by other Gears that the Carmine name is 'unlucky', so I try to believe in it and that at some points it wants to cooperate with us.

"So, Carmine." Ash begins.

"Why did you draft to our squad, instead of sticking with the old one?"

I look over to her.

"I was gonna ask you the same question, you were in it after all."

"I didn't choose to change; I was handpicked by Rex himself." She says, flicking her blonde hair to the side.

"Well, you are fit to be a doctor Ash." I compliment.

"Your skills as a field Medic are hard to come by in the COG."

"Yeah, maybe I could sign up to be a doctor when this is all over..." She replies with a sigh.

"Don't worry; I'm sure they'll accept you with open arms." I smile under my helmet.

"Thanks Dan, it means a lot." Ash says, smiling back at me.

We eventually meet up with James and Rex, who are in one piece by the looks of it. James looks towards the path, leading forward.

"Looks like that way leads deeper into the Hollow." James points to a dark cave, which leads into the unknown.

"Then that's we're headed, we can meet up with Delta-One there." Rex explains briefly before starting to jog towards the cave. The rest of us unwillingly follow.

"Let's just hope we don't meet with that Corpser again." James sighs, slowly loading a magazine into his Lancer. As I examine it, he has painted a blue COG gear onto his Lancer; it's marked near the barrel.

We continue through the lowly-lit cave, stalagmites have formed into the top of it and sounds of Locust screeches are heard as we stay silent. I begin to wonder what might happen after the war, if I do end up surviving this monstrosity. Do I settle down, own a house in some Stranded Camp, or do I sign on for another tour with the COG? Either way, I don't see myself dying any time soon.

We eventually reach an end to the cave, revealing the rest of a Locust Camp. We still have to continue toward the drop zone. The Imulsion River runs to both sides of the continuing path, leading to a large self-made building, probably constructed by the Locust.

"No time to waste team, lets head to that camp." Rex orders us, continuing along the path while we continue to follow him.

[Music: Gears of War Main Theme]

"Alright, Ash, James and I will head in and ambush the fuckers. Carmine, stay here and cover us. Kill as many as you can." He orders, Ash and James jog off with him, I then crouch behind a nearby rock and pull out my Longshot, placing my Lancer on the rocky ground.

I fiddle with the scope until I get a correct zooming position; I then place the rifle on the rock for a more accurate shot.

Here we go…

Ash, James and Rex storm the camp, guns blazing. I begin to pick off a few before the rest of the squad storm the locust-made tents, killing the grubs inside. I shoot the rest of the ones perched outside, and Rex sounds an all clear. I pick up my Lancer, putting my Longshot back and walk over towards the rest of the squad.

"Strange… Why would some Locust have a camp way out here, if their stronghold isn't far from here?" James questions.

"No idea…" Rex squanders, casing the just-sieged camp.

"Okay, let's spread out and search the camp. James, you're with me. Let's go."

Rex and James head to the south of the camp, whilst Ash and I split to the north. Dead Locust lay flat on the rubble, blood spilled and flesh torn from their bodies. We begin to search tents and old cages, with body parts of old humans stuck to the bars, I look away almost instantly.

"What they're doing…" I mumble to myself.

"It's fucked, huh?" Ash looks towards me.

I nod as we continue to walk.

"Just try not to think of it, we'll win Dan." She assures me, smiling.

"Ha, yeah" I manage chuckle. "With you on our side, we just might."

After searching the north end of the camp, we come across a large cage, with COG gears trapped inside. Ash and I rush over; she grabs hold of the lock as I use my Lancers chainsaw to take it off. The door slams down onto the ground with a thud, and 7 COG soldiers limp out. One remains without a helmet, his bald head is heavily scarred and several bullet wounds graze his armour.

"Thanks for the save…" The soldier coughs.

"Don't mention it, who are you?" Ash says she stares off towards the other gears that are also scarred and bruised; they all begin to find Locust weapons, Hammerbursts most likely, and load them with scavenged ammo. You can hurt the man, but you can't hurt his spirit, as my Dad used to say.

"Oh, Ash!" He says with a sign of relief. "I'm Sargent Alex Dornan, from Omega-Three."

"Good to see your men are still kicking Alex; this is our main Marksman, Daniel Carmine." She says, pointing towards me.

We shake hands.

"Daniel, I was friends with Anthony, sorry to hear of his passing." Dornan shivers quietly.

"Thanks." I utter swiftly, before letting go of his hand.

I look behind, seeing James and Rex jogging over toward us.

"Rex!" Dornan yells out.

Rex utters a slight smile. "Alex, it's good to see you and your squad again."

"Where did you guys drop from? I thought they were dropping towards Landown?" Alex questions, as his mouth opens, I notice a lot of his teeth are missing, and blood marks the insides of his mouth, this was recent.

"Our Rig was brought down by a Corpser." Rex replies, then looking towards Ashley with an angry look on his face.

"We were… Side-tracked, weren't we Ashley?"

Ashley doesn't say anything, instead crossing her arms. I then point towards Alex's mouth scars.

"What happened?" I ask.

"The Locust, they wanted information on the COG. Either that or they just wanted us to die horribly." He explains, pointing towards his teeth.

"They kept pulling my teeth out, one by one and slashing my face with hooks, until you guys showed up."

"So we saved your ass?" James asks sarcastically.

"Well yeah, pretty much."

A path leads into another cave, and through there leads to a large open area. Rex looks towards it.

"I'm guessing we're headed through there?" He asks.

"Yeah, that's the way through toward the original mission, out squad will follow on your lead Rex." Alex nods, pulling a Gnasher Shotgun off of a Locust corpse, loading it.

"Sure thing, we could use the extra assist." Rex then heads to the front of the 2 squads, the rest of us form into a bunch.

"Alright, let's move!" Rex yells, as we head towards the next area.


	3. Infiltration

Omega-One  
-Sgt. Rex Blackburn  
-Cpl. Ashley Kensington  
-Pvt. James Maddox  
-Pvt. Daniel Carmine

Daniel Carmines P.O.V  
Act 1: In the Beginning…  
Chapter 3: Infiltration

The 11 of us begin to march through the next cave, leading to a large open room. It looks like another one of those camps, only a bit more fortified than the last one. Suddenly, more Locusts appear out of the tents and fortifications, including 2 Boomers. We take cover behind their fortifications and start firing on them with all our might. We manage to bring down most of the Locust drones quickly before the Boomers begin to fire their Boomshots straight at us.

"Shit!" Rex freaks as a Boomshot rocket flies straight past him, exploding back near the cave and collapsing the entrance, no going back now.

"James, you and Carmine flank these guys while we keep 'em distracted."

James begins to move to the left, hugging the barricades as he hobbles along, I follow him.

We quickly reach an area where we can peer over towards the Boomers; they continue to fire their weapons at the other Gears.

"What now?" I ask quietly.

"I'll tell you what…" He hands me one of his grenades, peering over at the Boomers.

"Run over to that Boomer on the far side, attach the grenade to the back of him, then run like hell. I'll do the same for the one closest to us."

He laughs. "We'll show them the real meaning of the word 'boom.'"

I nod, smiling under my helmet; I crouch down and sneak around the first Boomer, moving over to the second. I stay positioned behind it. James then moves to the first one and signals a count down.

3, 2, 1.

We attach the grenades, pulling the pin off of them and rushing off to the barricades. The Boomers explode in a load of gore and flesh. I blush slightly, as much as I want to laugh and cheer in victory; I know I've got to keep my cool. We regroup with the rest of the Gears.

"Yeah!" James cheers, high fiving me.

We start to search the camp, this one is a lot bigger than the last one, to the north, a large door stands locked, with no way of opening it from outside. We begin to look for a key, a switch or something but to no avail.

Alex stares straight at the door, his eyes twitched and confused.

"Looks like we might have to go around." He says.

"Yeah, if there is a way around." Rex sighs.

I look up at the rocky ceiling that keeps us safe from the horrors above, I then see a gap that leads to the next room, a small hole. It's high above the door, way out of our reach. I point up at it.

"Yeah, real smart Carmine, how the hell are we gonna get up there?" Rex questions me in a sarcastic manner, I ignore him.

"Calm down Rex, if there's a passage there; the Locust must use it somehow." Ash approaches us, reassuring me.

Rex then steps away from us, moving over towards the other Gears. I'm guessing he didn't like Ash talking back to him.

"If there're such things as flying Grubs now, I'm done." He utters before doing so.

We look over towards James; I try my best to hold back a laugh.

"Alright, it's settled. Let's find some way up there." James suggests, we then split off again.

We spend a few moments looking for a way up to the alternate entrance; all the other Gears continue to look for switches, buttons, anything that can bring the door down. I look up at a support pole; it's holding a large tent in position and it also has rods that stick out of it like some sort of antenna.

'Think outside the box, Dan.' I think to myself.

If I were to shoot the joint between the top of the tent and the support pole, I could collapse it, and use the large pole to climb up. Because this pole has wooden rods sticking out of it, we could use it as a ladder. I then look at the size of the pole, and compare it to the height of the alternate entrance. It's almost the same height.

I look over to James who is inside a tent opposite me. "Hey, James!" I call.

James jogs over to me, "What's up?"

I shoot the joint of the support pole, it falls down, and I then catch it with my left arm and holster my Lancer to pick it up. The roof of the tent collapses inwards like a small implosion.

"Help me take this over towards that hole, we're gonna use this as a ladder."

James then goes to the other side of the pole and helps me carry it over to the entrance slowly; we then hold it up vertically and place it down. It doesn't look very secure, but it'll do for now.

Rex walks back over towards us, examining the 'ladder'.

"This wouldn't be able to hold more than one of us at a time, we'll need one of us to climb the ladder and open the door from the other side." He suggests.

Alex then steps forward, walking over to the ladder without any questions; He then begins to climb it. We watch as he puts his locks his feet into every rod as he climbs further up. I begin to wonder what's on the other side, could there be Locust? Maybe it's another squad? Or maybe it's one of the generals, ready to tell us what the fuck our objective is.

I just hope it's something good.

Alex eventually reaches the top, grabbing onto the ledge and pulling himself up.

"Hey! I see COG Gears!" He yells down at us.

"And… They're around some sort of fire, or something, I'm gonna go che-"

His voice is interrupted by a gunshot, in a split second; blood begins to spill from Alex's neck as his head splatters to pieces, his corpse falls from the ladder, and landing on the rocky surface in a gory heap. The ladder falls on top of him.

We stare in horror as Alex lays lifeless, his blood spilling to the ground.

"Fuck… Okay, everyone take cover." Rex orders us quickly; he then rushes back towards the barricades.

"But what about Alex, sir?" A Gear asks

"Fuck him! He's gone! And if you don't listen to me you'll all end up dead as well!" Rex Scolds, he then continues to rush towards the barricades. We don't haste to follow him.

The 2 squads begin to bunker down behind the sandbags and barrels in the camp, as I slide over a sandbag wall, the doors behind me explode, and the Locust begin to rush at us with bullets flying.

[Music: Gears of War – "Locust Battle soundtrack"]

"God damn it!" James says, ducking down and blind firing the Locust in front of us.

The rest of us lay down fire on the oncoming Grubs, the sound of Lancer fire echoes throughout the room.

There's a lot more Locust than we would have thought, at least 20 including 3 grinders and a Boomer.

"I'm not losing any more Gears! Everyone keep their heads down!" Rex yells over the gunfire.

Surprisingly, every one of us keeps at it, keeping cover from the oncoming rain of bullets that the Grubs are throwing at us. We slowly continue to bring them down, due to their lack of cover, they're easy targets.

I bring the boomer down with a load of rounds to the head, its Boomshot rolls over toward me. I quickly pounce out of cover, grabbing the weapon, throwing down my Lancer and jumping back in again. With 2 shots left in it, I try to aim it directly at them, as to not waste any. With a few moments to adjust the Boomshot, I fire a round, killing 4 of them at once.

"Nice shot!" James praises me.

I load the last shot in and cock the trigger back, aiming it at the last group of Grubs; I fire it quickly, killing the rest of them in a single explosion. I throw the Boomshot down and retrieve my Lancer.

"Good job Carmine…" Rex mutters.

"Sir… Are we going to bring Alex with us or…" one of the COG Gear questions.

"No! He's dead, and we aren't going to lug 100 pounds of human carcass around with us!" Rex yells, walking towards the door.

Everyone goes with him, except for Ashley, who goes back towards Alex I follow her. She kneels down at his lifeless body, his blood now stained on his wrecked armour. Ash then rips his COG tags from his neck, and pockets them in her ammunition belt.

"He'll be remembered, no matter how much of a hard-ass Rex will be." Ash sobs.

"He has a family, just like you and me, I'm gonna make sure these tags go to their hands." She stands up; I place my hand on her back.

"Let's keep going." I say.

We then rush over towards the rest of the team, who have entered the next room. This room then leads to another cave, but a shorter one this time. We then emerge into a large area, with sandbags and rock vines hanging from the walls.

"Alright… We're back on track; this is the Inner Hollow here." James explains.

"Well, fucking finally. Alright troops, secure this area until our orders arrive." Rex orders, we then search the place for any signs of Locust, after an extensive scan of the place, it seems this area was abandoned.

We decide to rest up, so we can be prepared for what they might throw at us. Me, Ash and James keep on a lookout at the sandbags. I take a seat, leaning against one of the sandbag walls overlooking the path that leads onward.

"Great, time to recover." James says, holding his Lancer over his shoulder.

"Yeah, and we're finally where we're supposed to be." Ash replies with a positive tone.

I stare down the path, leading elsewhere, an arch made of rock showing that 'this is the way to go.' "The Inner Hollow…" I mumble to myself.


	4. Backfire

Omega-One  
-Sgt. Rex Blackburn  
-Cpl. Ashley Kensington  
-Pvt. James Maddox  
-Pvt. Daniel Carmine

Daniel Carmines P.O.V  
Act 1: In the Beginning…  
Chapter 4: Backfire

We stay quiet as we wait for our orders to arrive, I stay seated by the Sandbags and James and Ash are off talking by a rock pillar behind me. At least we're back on track, and that Corpser seems to have left us alone for good.

"Hey, Carmine!" James yells; I look over towards him.

"Come over here for a second, will you?"

I stand up, brushing the dust off me and stepping over towards him and Ashley, who seem to be relaxed about the whole situation.

"Ash tells me you used to serve in her old squad?" He asks, crossing his arms.

"Yeah, signed to the same squad on Emergence Day." I nod.

"I've saved her life quite a few times, actually."

Ash laughs, smiling and looking over to me.

"I'm guessing you two are childhood friends then?" James asks.

"Yep, we've known each other ever since we were teenagers." Ash explains, turning back to James.

"Damn, guess nothing's intervening with you two." He sighs.

Ash raises one of her eyebrows, "What do you mean by that?"

Before he can say anything, Rex marches up to us, with a slight frown on his face. It doesn't look like what he's gonna say will be good news.

"Alright, I've talked it over with control." He starts.

"We're going to raid the Locust Barracks and eliminate everything there."

I look over to him, "The Barracks?" I ask.

"But there'll be heaps of Locusts there, we'll be Target Practice." James says, doubting the Sargent.

"We won't." Rex grunts.

Ash steps in, crossing her arms towards the Sargent.

"We will."

Rex's eyes seem to set ablaze, his face filled with slight rage.

"Shut the fuck up, Corporal!" He yells.

"We're going into the Barracks, and we're taking those Grubs out, like it or not."

We then hear grunts coming from over by the arched shape passage way. We all draw our guns and group over toward the rest of the Gears. Suddenly, a swarm of Locust appear, wielding Lancers and Hammerbursts. We spread out to cover, some of the Gears ending up getting killed on their way toward rocks and barricades. We fire at the oncoming horde, but they outnumber us almost 10-1.

"Damn, they're all over us!" James yells as he fires rounds from his Lancer into the skull of a nearby Locust Drone.

Out of nowhere, 2 Reavers charge in through the rock wall, roaring. I focus my bullets on them as I keep my head down. One by one, Gears fall around us, bullets inflicting permanent wounds into their bodies and heads, they fall to the ground in a sudden splash of blood. Eventually, only 5 of us are left standing.

"Frag out!" Ash yells, hurling a grenade towards one of the already damaged Reavers, it makes direct contact with its underbelly and explodes, with the Reaver falling out of the sky.

The last remaining COG Gear from the other squad fires at the other Reavers eye area, blinding it, it eventually crashes into the cavern walls and collapses into the ground.

Rex places his hand on his earpiece, keeping his Lancer in his right hand.  
"This is Omega-One, we are about to be Overrun!"

I look over to James, he stands up to shoot but his gun jams. Rex then rushes over to him, pushing James to the side, as he does this 6 Hammerburst rounds fly into Rex's chest and he falls to the ground.

"Shit! Ash, help him out come on!" James demands, Ashley rushing over to Rex's side immediately afterward.

Reinforcements begin to charge in, I start to scavenge the Ammo from the dead COG soldiers.

"Delta Squad's here, let's do this!" James cries, protecting Ash as more Locust stream towards us.

I turn my head to see the 3 men of Delta Squad rushing in, including Ben, thank god he's still alive.

Benjamin takes cover beside me, firing at the oncoming Locust with his Longshot as Marcus and Dom press forward. Suddenly, a Grinder appears, instantly firing it towards the other COG Gear.

"Watch it, Kid!" I yell towards him, but the missile appears from the ground almost a second after, exploding in his face and sending his mutilated corpse into a rock.

The Locusts begin to fall back with Deltas help, as we continue to lay fire onto the grubs, the waves become thinner and thinner. The last kill goes to Marcus, who saws a Locust Drone in half with his Chainsaw Bayonet. We then regroup with them.

"Thanks for the help, Delta. We'll stay here and hold this position until we help our wounded." James thanks them.

"Yeah, you owe us one James." Dom jokes, patting him on the back.

"Oh, don't you remember all the times I saved your ass Santiago?" James laughs.

Meanwhile, Ben steps over to me, I can tell he's smiling under his helmet. I hug him like the older brother I once was.

"It's good to see you're still kicking, Ben." I say.

"Hell yeah, you as well Dan, seems like years ago since I last spoke to you." Ben replies, in the enthusiastic tone I've always loved about him.

"How's Ashley?"

I point over towards her. "Ask her yourself, chief."

Ash looks over towards us, waving at Ben, he waves back.

Ben used to always give Ash hell when she and I went through training, always annoying her and tricking on her, so she decided to do the same. Now they've developed a friendly relationship of always wanting to get each other back. Personally, I've always found it funny.

"Let's move, Delta." Marcus grunts, marching off toward the arch way.

"Well, I've gotta go. See you later Dan." He begins to walk off; I put my hand on his shoulder.

"Be careful out there. I don't want to lose another Brother."

Ben looks back toward me.

"I've got Marcus and Dom to back me up, how hard could it be?" He says with a positive attitude.

"Today, Rook!" Marcus scolds, and Ben rushes off toward him.

I sigh, walking off toward Ash.

"Fuck…that was close." Rex moans, as Ash stitches up the bullet wounds.

"Will he be okay?" James asks.

"Yeah, it's just a few wounds in the chest, he's lucky he wasn't hit near his vital organs." She explains, standing up and wiping the blood from her hands.

"So the bullets went right through his armour?" I ask.

"Yep, pretty much." She nods, pulling Rex up from his feet and giving him his Lancer.

"Alright, is everyone here?" Rex asks, loading his Lancer and stretching his muscles into place.

"Yeah, nobody from the other squad survived Rex, it's just us." James says.

"Shit… Alright, let's get our bearings; James and Ash, you two gather the spare ammo from those soldiers. Carmine, radio to command and tell them where we're headed." Rex orders.

We all split off; I put my hand on my ear piece.

"Control, this is Omega-One. We need directions to the Locust's main Barracks, any idea?"

After a brief few seconds, I get a response.

"Omega-One, this is your new advisor, Bentlee, I'll do my best to help you guys out."

I smile.

"Thanks Bentlee."

"Alright, your quickest way through is through a wall to the left of your position, you may need something to hack it down with, behind it is a pathway." He explains in a deep voice.

"How do you know that?" I ask.

"I've got a JACK bot on the other side." He says.

"What? I thought JACKs were only issued to high-value squads."

"You're destroying the barracks of the Locust; I'd say that's enough value for one of these. Now get this wall down, Bentlee out." He orders.

The radio turns silent, I turn back to Rex.

"So, what are we doing?" He asks with a stern voice.

I point over to the wall on out left. "We're knocking it over."

"Right, with what exactly?"

I shrug. "No idea."

Ash and James return with 4 packs of what seems to be scavenged ammunition; they toss me and Rex One of them.

"This is it?" He grunts, holstering the pack.

"Yeah, this is all we could find." James nods.

Rex shakes his head in disappointment, "Right, Carmine says the only way to the Barracks is through that wall over there, let's find a way through."

We split up, with Ash trying to saw her way through the wall, to no avail.

"You think that'll work?" Rex asks, crossing his arms.

Ash steps back, ignoring him and walking away.

I creep up to the wall and study it, noticing slight cracks and ruins in it, maybe a boulder or something would collapse it? I look over to James who is casing over a fallen Grindlift, I step over to him.

"If I could fix this Grindlift, we could use this to get through that wall." James explains, pulling out a wrench.

"You keep a wrench with you?" I ask.

"You never know when you might need it." He smiles, then pulling open a control panel and looking it over.

He twists a few wires and screws, and suddenly the Grindlift engine turns back on. If it were me, I would have just pushed a bunch of buttons.

"Alright, now we need to move this hunk of junk…" James mutters.

I look over to Ash and Rex, who are arguing over something, again.

"We need some help over here!" I yell.

They rush over, looking concerned and frightened.

"We need some help getting this Grindlift to the wall, so we'll need everyone to push." James explains.

We all step behind the Grindlift, with our hands on the back of it; we begin to push, the Grindlift slowly but steadily begins to moving into place. As we push, I begin to think about Bentlee, who is he? To my knowledge, I've never even heard of him, maybe he's just a recruit and was put onto our squad? I don't know, at least he seems willing to help us out.

The Grindlift reaches its position, James presses a button and the drill begins to turn, he pushes another and urges everyone to move back. The Grindlift then launches into the wall, collapsing it and the support around it; it falls to the ground in a mass of dust and rubble. The Grindlift eventually stops at the end of a long path that leads two ways; Rex sternly steps to the front of the squad.

"Alright Omega, let's see what's waiting on the other side." He mutters, stepping onto the newly found pathway, while we follow closely behind.

I load a magazine into my Lancer, eventually reaching the end where two paths split off in opposite directions; we're instantly greeted by the JACK Bot who is also standing in the middle of the two pathways. A screen appears out of it, revealing Bentlee, a large man with glasses and a scruffy hair do. He has a rough goatee and large ears.

"You must be Bentlee." Rex says.

"Yep, that's me." He replies, adjusting his glasses quickly.

"This bot is an old pal of mine, FRED."

James chuckles. "Fred?"

"Yeah, every JACK bot has a name, doesn't it?"

Rex stares up at the bot, and back to Bentlee, whose face covers most of the screen.

"Alright, we're going to wait here and make sure we're prepped for whatever onslaught we might face, be ready when we're okay to move." Rex orders.

Bentlee nods and the Bots screen closes off, it then hovers over to James.

I sit down, with Ash taking a seat next to me; I put my Lancer down on the ground and rest up. Whatever's beyond these paths is a mystery to us at the moment, but it certainly isn't going to be great.


	5. Malfunction

Omega-One  
-Sgt. Rex Blackburn  
-Cpl. Ashley Kensington  
-Pvt. James Maddox  
-Pvt. Daniel Carmine

Daniel Carmines P.O.V  
Act 1: In the Beginning…  
Chapter 5: Malfunction

"Dan, do you ever think that the world's going to change? Back to the days where you could sit around with your friends and laugh without the Locust shooting you?" Ash asks, her legs crossed and hands on the ground, keeping her steady.

"Yeah, we can hope so." I say, I grab my dog tags and stare down at them.

"I just want this goddamn war to end."

She looks at me with comforting eyes.

"It'll end, and we'll be the ones standing on top of those bastards." She smiles.

I look back at her, nodding.

"Yep, sounds good Ash."

"Is everyone locked and loaded?" Rex asks.

James turns away from the bot, pointing a thumb up towards Rex. Me and Ash stand up, I then pick up my Lancer and cock it into position.

"Alright, James and I will head right with the bot; Carmine and Ashley can head left and provide covering fire from above us." Rex orders us, and jogs off with James and FRED.

"Looks like it's you and me Dan, let's go." Ash says leading us left.

I face her, "Any idea what you'll do after the war?"

She smiles. "I want to raise a family…"

"That sounds like a good idea; you'll have yourself a nice man and some kids." I say.

"Ha, yeah; it all sounds so great in my head…"

We come up to a ledge; Ash jumps up and lends her hand down to help me out. I look up to her.

"But what's stopping you?" I ask, grabbing her hand tightly.

She helps me up, pulling beside her, she sighs.

"The environment, Dan… All the Imulsion, guns and violence aren't making it a safe place to raise children."

I place my hand on her shoulder; she looks over to me.

"Don't worry, we'll stop these guys."

We stand up and keep moving, not looking back. The path leads to a sewage way, water runs through a large tunnel. Windows lay across the walls, and through them we see James and Rex marching below us. James waves towards me, and I wave back. A gunshot is suddenly heard; both Rex and James take cover and grip their Lancers. I unhook my Longshot and aim it through the window.

A small squad of Locust appear from the shadows, wielding Hammerbursts. I provide quick cover fire while Rex and James deal with them. We take them out fast, leaving only the remains of dead Grubs.

"Let's keep going, follow me." Ash says, signalling me.

At the end of the water tunnel, the water drips down into a pond, the pond leading to a Balcony built into the side of a wall; it leads to another one of those large doors.

As we creep through the tunnel, we notice that there are Locust Drones guarding the balcony, and are shooting at James and Rex.

Ash puts her pointing finger over her mouth, signalling me to be quiet. She hops down on the ground, then sprinting up to a Locust Drone and decapitating it with her Chainsaw Bayonet, the head spills over the Balcony Railing and onto the ground below. She then pounces to the next one who has just noticed her and rips it in half, starting from the top down; it falls in a gory mess.

I hop down, witnessing her two takedowns.

"You aren't a bad piece of work, Ash." I compliment.

"Neither are you, hotshot." She smirks, revving the chainsaw to smear the blood off of it.

We walk over to the door, I press my shoulder against it and push, the door moves slowly and eventually opens, leading us inwards.

"Alright, we're heading in through the balcony." Ash says, with her hand on her earpiece.

"Think you can make it through okay until we meet back up?"

Static blares through the radio, I then make out the words, "Yeah, don't wait up though." Sounds like James just being smart again.

Ash steps ahead of me, "Let's get a move on, Dan."

We move into a jogging pace, stepping into a hallway. I see bodies of decaying COG corpses and think, why do they need to torture us? Why not just kill us then and there? I decide not to dwell on it any longer.

"Seems quiet…" I mutter.

"Yeah, keep a look out." Ash orders back.

We come across some vines that block the path forward, they're quite thick, and I rev my chainsaw bayonet. Ash then grabs hold of the vines, pulling them towards me as I saw through them, we press forward. We step out onto another

We step out onto another balcony; I look down and see James and Rex have encountered a few more grubs.

"They can never keep themselves quiet…" Ash says, she then turns to me.

"Keep them covered, and I'll find a way up."

I unhook my Longshot and fire at the Drones below. They fall one by one quite quickly, they seem oddly uncoordinated. Eventually the rest of them retreat, both Rex and James chase after them.

I holster my Longshot, looking back to Ash who is climbing up to a platform above the balcony, she lends her hand down. I jump up and grasp her hand firmly; I then reach my other hand to the platform and pull myself up; Looks like this platform was still under some sort of construction, like an expansion of some sort. I look over to the wall, which looks weak and frail, I step towards it and lunge my foot through it, it crumbles instantly. I step to the side.

"Well, let's go." I nod

Ash crawls through the hole and drops down into the barracks, I crouch down after her. We land in what looks to be the armoury, guns are laying against walls and along racks and shelves. Guns lay sprawled along the ground like mountains of weaponry, and ammunition lies in a smaller pile next to them.

"Alright, load up and let's go." Ash says, grabbing a few Lancer clips and shoving them into an ammo bag she keeps around her waist.

I notice a chest in the corner of the room, locked and strapped down. I slowly step over to it, kicking off the lock; it seems to shatter as my boot makes impact with it. I open it with one hand; I stare at its contents, shocked. A Hammer of Dawn lay in almost perfect condition, I pick it up.

"Those bastards have had a Hammer of Dawn this whole time?" She questions.

"Seems that way…" I sigh, holstering the Hammer of Dawn in my pistol holster.

I grab a few ammo clips and we head out. In a few short seconds we meet up with what seems like well-trained soldiers, Theron Guards equipped with Lancers. We take cover behind a doorway listen in on their conversation. A stern, male voice speaks towards the Theron Guards, who stare at him with awe.

"We have 4 soldiers trying to infiltrate our humble place of weaponry…" He pauses.

"Who's the guy speaking?" Ash asks.

I try to get a closer look, but the walls cover his face.

"I don't know…"

"These are only 4 soldiers, my fellow Locust, they must be stopped." He continues, the Theron Guards seem to hiss in acceptance.

"They have split up to destroy us, we have 2 of them, and we will find the rest!" He raises his arm in triumph, and the guards cheer.

"They must have captured Rex and James, Dan…" Ash sighs.

"Now, clear out! And defeat our enemies!" He points towards an exit and the Theron Guards march out.

The spokesman then steps down and smirks, I turn back to Ashley.

"He's… He's Human." I say.

"That explains why he was speaking our language." Ash stands up, loading her Lancer.

I then stand up with her; we both nod and storm the room. We aim our weapons at the man; he turns around and puts his hands up.

"Well shit, you got me." He says.

"Who are you!?" Ash yells, pointing her Lancer towards the man's head.

"Me? There's so much to tell…" He starts.

"Well, your friend knows, I'm sure of that. Why don't you enlighten us Mr. Carmine?"

Ash looks at me with a confused look, I sigh.

"Vlaak, the second General after Ram." I mutter.

"You know him?" She asks me sternly.

"Yeah, your buddy Carmine and I go way back." He chuckles.

"Remember, Daniel? When I slaughtered your entire squad in a room of Tickers?" He then breaks out in laughter.

I then aim my Lancer at his head and go to pull the trigger, but he almost instantly whips a Boltok Pistol from behind him and it aims towards my leg, he then fires. The bullet penetrates my armour and inflicts into my knee cap, I fall to the ground and grip my knee as blood slowly spills from it. He does the same to Ash as she goes to shoot him, she shrieks as she falls forwards onto her stomach. I look up to him; he kicks her in the side of the head, knocking her out. He steps over to me, crouching down and smiling.

"I thought you would have done better than that..." He says before lifting his foot and impacting it into the side of my head, everything goes black.


	6. Still Unbroken

Omega-One  
-Sgt. Rex Blackburn [M.I.A]  
-Cpl. Ashley Kensington  
-Pvt. James Maddox [M.I.A]  
-Pvt. Daniel Carmine

Daniel Carmines P.O.V  
Act 2: Lost  
Chapter 1: Still Unbroken

Stripped of my armour and helmet, I'm thrown into a small cell and locked in. I slowly stand my vision groggy and unsettling. My tank top is slightly ripped, my black combat pants bloody from my bleeding leg. I roll up the bloody leg pants sleeve, they stitched the gunshot wound? I look up toward the cell door; I can't die here, not now. I then look out past the door, lots of other cells lean down a hallway, no sign of Ashley. I then see a guard walking past me; he holds a Boltok Pistol and what seems to be holding the keys in his pocket. I step back, acting casual. The Locust Drone then walks past; I reach my arm through the cell door and grab him by the neck, pulling him towards me. I suffocate him then crack his neck against the door, he falls silently. I grab the keys and unlock the door.

That was a little too easy.

I pick up his Boltok Pistol and keep it in my right hand, I also keep the keys. If Ash is here, I'll need to keep these just in case. I reach the end of the hallway, and nothing but rotting corpses in the other cells. I can't give up. I continue up the staircase, and see 2 Locust Drones guarding the hall. I take cover by a support pole that's holding up the 3rd floor. I notice that one of them is holding a knife; he turns around and faces the other Drone. I sneak up to him, snatching his knife and stabbing him in the back. I then throw the knife into the skull of the other Drone. Both of them fall, dying. I look around, there's still no sign of Ash. I step up to the 3rd floor; one Locust Drone sees me instantly and aims his Hammerburst toward me. I quickly shoot him with the Boltok Pistol; his eye begins to bleed as the bullet inflicts it. I rush over, and there's Ash, looking amazed.

"What took you so long?" She questions.

I shake my head slightly as I unlock her cell. She's also been stripped of her armour, only in a small Tank Top and combat pants. I stare at her in slight awe. She picks up the Drones Hammerburst and loads a clip into it.

"I haven't seen your face in so long, Carmine. I forgot how blue your eyes are." She says.

"Yeah…" I mutter.

She shakes her head and steps over towards a locker; she opens it, revealing our armour in mostly one piece.

"Where are our guns?" I ask.

"They didn't bring 'em in here, so I don't know, just suit up." She orders, grabbing her armour.

We suit up, I secure my helmet and armour, and I then load the Boltok Pistol and holster it. Ash also does so, holding the Hammerburst she picked up.

"Alright, there's a heap of Locust above us, we'll take them out and take control of the barge." She says.

"What about Rex and James?" I ask, we begin to walk up the stairs.

"Dan, I don't know. We have to focus on getting out of here though…" She sighs, we reach top of the stair case and take cover by a barrier, as 6 Locust Drones guard the top of the barge.

Ash nods, she then hops over the barrier and starts shooting at them, she takes down 2 of them before getting grabbed by another. The Locust Drone aims a Hammerburst towards her face. I jump the barrier and run towards it, I dive, tackling the Drone to the ground and shooting it in the skull. I then look up and shoot another before Ash takes out the last one, pushing it off the side of the barge.

"Alright, how do we control this thing?" I ask, seeing a lever. I pull it and the barge slows down.

"Looks like there's no stop button…" Ash sighs.

We come to a curve in the path, and the barge turns on its own. As the barge turns, we notice 2 towers. As I look closer, I notice they have troikas on them, and they both start shooting at the barge.

"Shit! Get down!" Ash yells, tackling me to the ground, she lays on top of me for a few seconds, staring at me. She then takes her notice to the troikas.

The sides of the barge begin to explode as they're penetrated by the oncoming bombardment of troika bullets. They eventually start shooting at the creature carrying us and we slowly start to descend. Ash then pulls me up, we crouch behind the barriers. She chucks me the Hammerburst and points towards the Troikas. I aim. Time seems to slow as I look through the sight. I fire a few rounds at the Drones on Troikas, all but 2 rounds hit their skulls, and the troika fire stops. We continue to descend however, faster. We then hit the ground hard; we both roll onto the Rocky Surface as the barge explodes behind us in a blaze of fire. Ash gets herself up, standing groggily and putting her hand on her head. She steps in front of me and stares at the towers. I look towards them, this isn't the Barracks, and we've been carried off somewhere else.

"God damn…" Ash mutters to herself in anger.

I push myself to my feet, brushing off the dust and looking forwards.

"Looks like the only reasonable things we can do are push forward and stay alive." She says, picking up the Hammerburst and walking towards the towers. I clench the Boltok Pistol in my right hand and walk beside her.

We walk quietly, I wonder about Rex and James, and if they ever actually made it out. Then again, its Rex we're talking about, he hates the Locust more than all of us put together, I'm sure he's found some way to escape from wherever he is. I look towards Ash; a frown crosses her face as we continue to march towards the troikas.

"You okay?" I ask.

She sighs. "No Dan, I'm not."

"We were captured at the hands of some mad Locust Human freak that somehow knows you, in fact, how does he know you?"

"Ash… it's complicated." I mutter.

"No, how the fuck does he know you." She says to me sternly.

"Alright…" I start.

"After you left us, we were sent on a mission to take him out, but we had never seen him before. We went down, fought through waves of Locust, and he caught us. He threw us into a room full of Tickers and killed everyone but me. So he started fucking with me even more by sending waves of Kantus's, Drones, Wretches, hell, he even threw a Berserker at me." I explain.

"I want this guy dead."

Ash stares at me with wide eyes.

"Damn…" She whispers to herself.

We get past the troikas, seems it was a fortification wall of some sort. I look on the other side of the towers, and for some reason there are troikas on that side as well. Why would they need them there? We continue to walk, with each step I take seeming a little more suspicious. I begin to see torches and skulls planted on posts, but they aren't human that's for sure. Eventually, we reach an encampment, surrounded by walls of scrap and corpses of dead Locust. Suddenly, a man stands up over the wall and aims at us with a Lancer, he fires at us. I pull Ash towards me as the bullets fly past me.

"Fuck… COG?" The man asks, with a dark and raspy voice.

"Yeah pal, don't worry." I reassure him.

He shakes his head and jumps down, a makeshift gate, operated by chains rises up, and people look at us, weary of us almost.

"Stranded, here?" Ash whispers to me.

"No clue." I mutter as we step towards the Stranded.

"Who the hell are you two? How'd you get passed the Death Wall?" The man rambles.

"I'm Ash, and this is Daniel. We got captured and were heading this way on a prison barge, until it was blown up." Ash explains.

"That wall is 'The Death Wall'?" I ask.

"Well, yeah." The man scoffs.

"We took care of it."

He stares at us in amazement, shaking Ash's hand.

"Well, welcome to the Border of Nexus." He mumbles, drifting his hand towards the makeshift village.

Buildings made of scrap metal and wood stand upwards, as a path leads right through the small village. How these people have kept alive is beyond me, but what he said about Nexus dawns me. What's Nexus? We enter the stranded village, the supposed boarder of this 'Nexus'.


End file.
